LWN.net: “This is primarily a bug fix release. Although few new features have been added, including a Psion importer. Several of the core features added in recent releases have been completed. Frozen panes and outline mode are now fully functional, with full XL import/export.”

Slashdot: “An anonymous reader sent in a link to a presentation given by Tom Vogt at HAL 2001. He reviews the whole CSS/DeCSS mess from the beginning, which makes a it a nice backgrounder for people who are wondering what the Sklyarov, 2600 and other cases are all about.”

Advogata: “The Reefknot project (http://reefknot.sourceforge.net/) is currently discussing what license to slap onto the a certain part of the documentation itself. Licenses being considered are the Gnu Free Documentation License, and the Open Publication License. I wrote the following to the mailing list, and got a little carried away, so thought it should have wider reading. This article is released under the Open Publication License”

ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/alan/2.4/. Intermediate diffs are available from http://www.bzimage.org.

2.4.8-ac1
o Merge Linus 2.4.8
– Skip VM changes for now
o Fix sblive build problems (Rui Sousa)
o Add Fernando Fuganti to credits (Fernando Fuganti)
O Revert printk return change (Andrew Morton)
o Add drm-4.0 to mod_subdirs (Brian Dushaw)
o Bluez bluetooth updates (Maksim Krasnyanskiy)
o Fix serverworks AGP memory leak (Hugh Dickins)
o Update DRM 4.1 for Alpha AGPGart support (Jay Estabrook,
Jeff Hartmann)
o Fix depca crash on unload (Peter Denison)

2.4.7-ac11
o Fix dumb bug in the bootflag handling code (Randy Dunlap)
o Compaq FC update (makefile clean too)
(Charles White)
o Add Matt Domsch to the credits (Matt Domsch)
o Update Randy Dunlap’s contact info (Randy Dunlap)
o SA1100 updates (Russell King)
o Add PnP support to sf16i (Ladislav Michl)
o Acorn drivers update (Russell King)
o Fix clashing ‘cams’ symbol (Keith Owens)
o Fix AGP memory leak on serverworks (Jeff Hartmann)
o Fix an off by one in shmem.c (Hugh Dickins)
o Revert incorrect ATM change (Mike Westall)
o DRM makefile fixes (Keith Owens)
o Next batch of superblock work (Al Viro)
o Fix in2k oopses (Francois Romieu)
o Add reboot by SMP reset (Matt Domsch)
o Add pm support for laptops that resume the
mouse port even if was disabled before.. (Matt Domsch)
o Add DMI quirks for all modern dell systems (Matt Domsch)
o Inspiron 4000 needs irqs on for APM (Arjan van de Ven)
o YMFPCI fixes, big endian fixes (Pete Zaitcev)
o Add winbond W83971D ac_97 codec to tables (Andrey Panin)
o pcnet32 oops fix and leak fix (Paul Gortmaker)
o Use static inline in sound drivers (me)
o Fix DRM build/makefile bugs from merge (Andrzej Krzysztofowicz)
o Avoid lp module being pinned down if console
enabled (Tim Waugh)

LWN daily links: “I have recently completed a guide to setting up a complete Intranet for a small office, using Linux-based server software, utilising the available bandwidth to the maximum. It is somewhat different from other guides, and since I have received encouraging feedback on it, I would like you to take a look at it, and if you like, recommend it to your readers.”

Gnotices: “We are proud to announce the latest stable release of Anjuta, 0.1.6. This release was a long time in the making, but some interesting features have been added and some big improvements have been made. Anjuta is a versatile Integrated Development Environment (IDE), primarily intended for C/C++. It has been written for GTK+/GNOME, and features a number of advanced programming facilities, such as project-management, application wizards, an interactive debugger and a powerful sourcecode editor, with source browsing and syntax highlighting.”

NYTimes : “Dmitri Sklyarov rarely reads electronic books. ‘There are almost no e-books in Russian,’ said Mr. Sklyarov, the 26-year-old Moscow cryptographer who was arrested in Las Vegas last month under a 1998 digital copyright law. ‘I prefer paper books. They’re much easier to carry with me, and can be read anywhere.'”

As reported by Slashdot, Microsoft has released a tool targetted at cleaning up after an infection (although it’s not technically as secure as a wipe/reinstall). Hopefully this will encourage more administrators to clean up their systems.

StarTribune : “‘Hackers are a misunderstood lot. And they’re more powerful than they realize.’ So says John Lee. ‘They can destroy, steal or corrupt valuable information if they want to,’ Lee said. He should know. In 1992, he earned the distinction of making Wired magazine’s “Rogue’s Gallery” after he and four cronies (his code name was “Corrupt”) were convicted of hacking the networks of AT&T, Bank of America, TRW and the National Security Agency and stealing confidential information from credit reports. Lee was sentenced to a year in time, and he served another year for violating parole. He denies the allegations.”

Kelly McNeill writes “Linux distributor Red Hat is set to launch a new e-commerce suite built on an open-source platform, the company told the E-Commerce Times Friday. The new product, called simply Red Hat E-Commerce Suite, is aimed at mid-size businesses that want to expand their e-commerce platform to support more transactions, enable more complex merchandising and integrate with their backend systems, Red Hat said.”